“For a long long time, women and people of color were not allowed to imagine the future. But now we have that opportunity. So I want to keep this lab space, the Poetic Operations Collaborative, open. Having a lab like this has been a major life goal for me, having worked with other artists, like Ricardo Dominguez, in their labs. There’s a long history of artists being innovative, coming up with new technologies thirty years before they’re appropriated by corporations who turn them into marketable products. I just want to keep doing that – creating the future in order to try and create a better future.”

Frances Lee is a Masters of Arts in Cultural Studies student at the University of Washington Bothell. They are a native Texan with a complicated relationship to the sun, and are currently based in Seattle. Frances straddles several disciplines, including technology, community activism, and art. They have worked in the Austin/Seattle corporate tech industry and are a trained UI/UX Designer. They are currently collaborating with an all-trans work group to create the 2017 King County Trans Resource and Referral Guide, which provides a safety net for trans people and their loved ones in this region.

Frances’ research centers women of color feminism, trans of color identities, tech education, and community intellectualism. Frances completed their BA in Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Frances will be conducting and transcribing interviews, video recording, photography, video editing and website management for the #Stronger project. They will be exploring other ways to contribute their tech skills to promote the health and safety of trans and queer people of color.